Manufacturing Systems

The food distribution of (deep) refrigerated goods is a steadily growing market segment that deals with sustainability in particular. Due to the high efficiency of the CEP service providers, a shipment as such is not necessarily worse than a shopping trip by car over several kilometers in town. A concrete approach to improve ecological sustainability in food delivery is the substitution of existing PE plastic bags filled with dry ice. The bags help to keep the dry ice together and protect the customer from burns. The following article analyzes ecological aspects of food shipment and conveys an understanding of current development concerning biodegradable plastic films. Due to special material properties of bio-based plastic films, the manufacturability of dry ice bags was investigated in a series of experiments. Dry ice bags were manufactured by means of the very precisely adjustable joining technology ultrasonic welding. Subsequent, load capacity of the dry ice bags was examined.

The complexity of the production process and the higher demand for quality and individualization leads to structural changes and challenges in the production process. The analysis of interdependencies of Lean Production Systems as an industrial standard und Industrie 4.0 is able to determine new spaces of action and alternative solutions to optimize the production processes. The analysis shows that the technologies and systems of Industrie 4.0 does not compete but rather support the principles of Lean Production Systems.

Due to the change of work in manufacturing caused by the introduction of Cyber-Physical systems, there is a need for adequate design principles for user interfaces between humans and machines. Within a research project, a method for the determination and evaluation of such design principles was developed. The method can be used to create a catalogue of rules regarding the successful integration of human factors into Cyber-Physical production systems.

Industry 4.0 and digitalisation are also increasingly finding their way into everyday production processes in SMEs. The focus is e. g. on assistance systems that support employees in their work. Resulting communication is significantly facilitated and at the same time the required information is available at the appropriate workplace at the right time. The ‘Mittelstand 4.0 Kompetenzzentrum Chemnitz‘ has dedicated itself to this challenge together with two SMEs.